Sails: 135LP genoa and Interrupt main and spinnaker.
Twelve boats in three rafts on Kerwin Creek: Laughing Gull, Rinn Duin, Felicity, Carnival Lady, Gilleleje, Constance, Waconah, Sikora, Mustang II, Evelyn Rae (Tim Peek), Gendarme, and Leighway.
Woke up about two in the morning. Checked lines and went back to sleep. Throughtout the night, the three boats in this raft: Sikora, Waconah, and Constance, gently sailed at anchor.
Woke again about five. Dawdled to see if anyone else would awaken. Got up at six. Made coffee and sat in the cockpit enjoying the early light before 7:05 sunrise. Made breakfast. The Bella Tavola Click2Cook stove worked wonderfully. Quite pleased. Folks did not get up till later. Chatted for an hour with the Palmers aboard Waconah, once they got up. Cleaned up and at :10:30, one of the last to set off.
Motored out to deeper water to the east of Hog Island to get a straight shot to G "P1". Motor off at 10:57, 329.1 on the clock.
Beam reach out to the vicinity of G "P1". During the reach, set the spinnaker on deck, port pole, and ran lines. Nice 3.5nm reach in 43 minutes.
Set the spinnaker at 11:44. No problems hoisting this time, rather the person that packed the chute, packed it twisted. Working the twist out of a wet sail is not as easy as a dry one. Heading off near dead downwind with pole well back makes opens the chute and helps to remove the twist. Better than pulling on tapes and trying to work out the twist that way. Soon after the apparent wind fell to about five knots at 140* apparent. At 12:37, crossed paths wtih Mike Grosh aboard Checkmate who was headed up the Eastern Bay to rendezvous with the cruise at Hunting Creek.
Slow 7.7nm run over two hours and twenty minutes to the shoal of the south end of Kent Island. Gybed the spinnaker by picking up the starboard spin line in the pole end before dropping the port line, so far so good. Troubles. Topping lift outside of the port jibsheet, prevented me from moving the pole out far enough to attach to the mast ring. Once that was sorted, the starbaord jibsheet was a limiter. Finally, completed the gybe. Dropped the spinnaker just east of Bloody Point Light. With the sail at full hoist, gathered the foot completely with some effort, which collapsed the sail and made it easy to handle at that point. Failed to control the halyard well enough during the drop. The top of the sail fell off to leeward and re-inflated. More effort to get the sail down, but not in the water this time. Better than the last drop.
Quite a number of wakes from various directions hitting in sequence at the entrance to the Eastern Bay. Mercifully, they are nearly the only wakes that I had to endure this day.
By 14:46 the wind had dropped to about 3.5 apparent at 120* to starboard. Began motorsailing at 15:05, in the vicinity of R "86", and continued to do so till 16:21. About 13:35, the wind filled in to about 6 to 7 apparent down the Bay, about 20* to starboard of heading. Speed over ground doubled due to motorsailing.
By 16:21, arrived at G "1HP" and shutdown the engine. Less wind that I would have liked, but wanted to sail some more rather than listen to the engine sound. Wind dropped slowly down to six and then five apparent. Dropped, flaked, and furled at Horn Point. Motored to the slip.
Once ashore, felt "different. A bit out of sorts. Figure that after 30 hours aboard being back on land that does not move beneath me was disconcerting to my inner ear. Still the next morning feeling a bit that way. Wonder what would happen if I spent a week afloat?
GPX
formatted, complete track . Estimate distance: 23.81nm, estimated average speed: 3.52kts, duration: 6:45